Chromeo

White Women (Parlophone)
05/20

Chromeo’s latest record is called White Women. We’re not quite sure why. Then again, why not? At least it’s not as questionable as the album’s opener Jealous (I Ain’t With It).

Seriously, opening your record with the kind of pap that sounds like a Youtube ad you can’t wait to skip is a bold move. OK, we’re beating around the bush here. It’s background music of the worst kind; dreadfully turgid funk, sub Daft Punk modern disco that makes Pharrell’s latest album look like a positively way out journey into the avant garden.

Even the album’s most credible collaboration, Come Alive, which features Toro Y Moi is painfully de- void of character. Chromeo peddle anaemic pop music; the kind of plodding, 130 bpm drivel that wouldn’t sound out of place in a catalogue of stock corporate hold music. They’re so out of touch that not even Solange’s – unsurprisingly adroit – vocal contribution on Lost On The Way Home can save them from sounding like a pair of confused uncles experiencing a serious midlife musical crisis. It’s so silly, in fact, that it makes their criminally overlooked performance of their educational hygiene an- them Nice N Clean on Yo Gabba Gabba feel like an evocative, timeless piece of art. Although, to be fair, that is easily the best song they’ve ever written.

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Words: Billy Black